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"The type of ransomware that's making its way through many organizations and industries is called Wanna Decryptor," Leon Kuperman, CTO of cybersecurity company CUJO, told us Friday. "It’s been around for two weeks but has only started spreading like wildfire today."

The ransomware locks all files on infected computers and demands money from users to regain control. The exploit was leaked last month as part of an arsenal of NSA spy tools.

"Researchers are not sure why it’s spreading so quickly all of a sudden. We believe it’s because Wanna exploits a Microsoft Windows vulnerability in the file sharing protocol," Kuperman explained. "This protocol has been around for decades but is only accessible once malware gets into an organization's LAN...once it got in, it spread quickly across local networks that were vulnerable."

According to Kuperman, large companies are the most susceptible to ransomware demands, but small businesses and homes aren't immune.

"The infection point can still occur from traditional methods such as malware clickbait," he warned.

Infosec expert Ori Eisen believes that Friday's attack will be considered "child's play" when compared to future assaults, which could affect nuclear power plants, dams or rail systems.

"Today, it happened to 10,000 computers...there's no barrier to do it tomorrow to 100 million computers," he said.